US Dept. of Education Teams With Microsoft-Led Teach.org On Teacher Diversity 148
theodp writes: Citing a new study that suggests academic achievement can benefit when children are taught by a teacher of their own race, the NY Times asks, Where Are the Teachers of Color? Towards that end, the Times reports that "Teach.org, a partnership between the Department of Education and several companies, teachers unions and other groups, is specifically targeting racial minorities for recruitment." Teach.org describes itself as a "public-private partnership led by Microsoft, State Farm and the U.S. Department of Education." To the consternation of some, the U.S. Dept. of Education delegated teacher recruitment to Microsoft in 2011. With its 2.2% African American/Black and 3.9% Latino/Hispanic tech workforce, who better to increase diversity than Microsoft, right?
Teach Dot Org (Score:4, Funny)
Behold the Borg
Keep mind & face clean
Or devoured by the warg
Burma Shave
That 'study' is full of shit ! (Score:5, Insightful)
My parents are from the Indian sub-continent, and I was born in America
Yes, technically I am qualified to be a 'minority' in America, but as a Minority I do not necessary benefit more from being taught by 'minority teachers'
All I need is a teacher who is qualified, who is enthusiastic, who wants to share whatever knowledge he or she has with me, who knows how to communicate clearly and who is cheerful --- As for the race of that teacher, I do not care
That so-called 'study' is thus shipload of turd
How come my government is listening to those turd suckers in the first place?
Political correctness has no place in education !!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Equality...diversity..ever wondered how liberals can ask for both of these at the same time???
Re: (Score:2)
* Whatever that may mean.
Re:That 'study' is full of shit ! (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm simply saying that we should not reject out-of-hand the notion that some groups learn better/more effectively from a member of their own race
Especially since TFA cites data that show it is true. Gender also matters. Boys learn better from male teachers. If a boy squirms in his seat, and has problems sitting still, a female teacher is four times more likely to recommend he be tested for ADHD. A male teacher is more likely to make him run laps around the playground.
Outsiders will forever be outsider if ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... that's what they want
I am a Chinese, born in China
In the US of A I am an *outsider* --- and if I want to forever remain an *outsider*, I can
In other words, if I remain an *outsider* that is because I choose to be an *outsider*
Look, man ! In this thread there is an Indian American (who was born in America) and a Chinese American, who was born in China already chimed in, and we share the same view, that the idea in which students can learn better from teachers who share the same racial background as them (the students) as a totally ridiculous notion
Political Correctness has no place in Education!!
Re: (Score:3)
Political Correctness has no place in Education!!
Except it isn't "political correctness". It is drawing conclusion from actual data. YOU are engaging in political correctness, by saying "race doesn't matter", when the data says it does.
Re: (Score:3)
So if a minority doesn't care, then it must be true? How about if a white guy does care, does that not count? Why does a minority opinion count more?
And why the total ignoring of science? If a well-run study suggests minority teachers are helpful, doesn't that trump personal anecdote from some stranger who says "hey guyz I'm chinese and I don't care!"
Re: (Score:2)
I am a Chinese, born in China In the US of A I am an *outsider* --- and if I want to forever remain an *outsider*, I can
I could be wrong about this, but I feel like Chinese immigrants contribute paradoxically to their own feeling of outsiderness by calling everyone else an outsider when they speak their own language (wai-guo-ren - the best I can do on Slashdot). It seems like that only reinforces the 'otherness,' and others would actually be more accepting of them.
Re: (Score:2)
What is there to explain? Their native language is Spanish, just as some other US groups have French or other languages as their native language.
Re: (Score:3)
They don't. You're making it up. First generation has a strong Mexican accent. Second generation has an accent. Third generation speaks better English than most of us tenth and twentieth generation Americans. You pulled that out of your arse, didn't you?
What's more, because I work with so many Mexicans, I'm actually beginning to understand the first generation accents, and accept them as "normal".
Maybe you should work with more Mexicans, and learn how they assimilate.
I'll grant that there ARE SOME mili
Re: (Score:2)
Can you explain how third-generation Mexican-Americans speak English with a Spanish accent?
No, because they don't.
You are so right ! (Score:3, Insightful)
If I can mod you up 1000 times, I will !
I came from China. Back in China all my teachers are Chinese - as China is full of Chinese naturally my teachers (good and bad) are Chinese
But when I landed on US of A none of my teachers / lecturers / professors (good and bad) happened to be ethnic Chinese
Did I ever fail to learn just because my teacher / lecturer / professor happened to be not of the same ethnic / racial background as me? Nope !
In fact, I find it utterly ridiculously to claim that students learn b
Re: (Score:2)
Educators that are able to connect with their students and inspire them are more successful, regardless of race or ethnicity. Using race or ethnicity as a crutch to teach with is a sign of a poor educator.
Re: (Score:2)
Educators that are able to connect with their students and inspire them are more successful, regardless of race or ethnicity.
That is a nice politically correct opinion that you have. Can you cite any data to back up your assertion? TFA has data that says you are wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
TFA has data that says you are wrong.
No the data still agrees with my conclusion, just not my opinion that it makes you a poor educator if you can't connect with your students regardless.
Re: (Score:2)
Shared race and/or ethnicity (depending on how much you are for correct terminology) makes it easier for a teacher to successful connect to their students--odds are, this would be a specific case of the well-studied & robust observation that people connect more easily and faster to those that they perceive as belonging to the same group.
This is used in social engineering quite successfully regularly. If you haven't noticed it yet...well, pay attention to the salescritters' approaches more. Social engi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Your opinion on this subject is equally irrelevant as the opinion of people 18 when MADD or [insert some other lobbyist organization here] starts shrieking "won't somebody think of the children".
This is about buying influence. Actual benefit to minorities is moot. The study was contrived for the purpose of greasing this form of pandering. Now the Dept. of Education can do what they wanted to do and the influence brokers can get what they want: power to make people jump when they say "jump" using race-baitin
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
You fail at asking the "5x why's".
Disciplinarianism is a mentality fully embraced by the inept because negative re-enforcement can be grasped easily even by simple minds and it off-puts the onerous burden of making the system "work"(IE. Defining the requirements) to the dis-empowered people(who are lower on the food-chain) because shit tends to roll down-hill.
Why did Individual "A" not fully read and understand the instructions? Reading and understanding are much more pleasant than working...
What external t
Re: (Score:2)
All I need is a teacher who is qualified, who is enthusiastic, who wants to share whatever knowledge he or she has with me, who knows how to communicate clearly and who is cheerful --- As for the race of that teacher, I do not care
That's good for you at higher levels, but for younger kids school is an important part of their upbringing and character development. Currently we have a huge problem in the UK with a lack of male primary school (4-7 year olds) teachers, resulting in a lack of male role models at the place kids spend half their waking lives.
Young black children need black role models. It shows them that black adults integrate, rather than being a separate home/school thing. It shows them that the negative images they see on
Re: (Score:2)
Political correctness has no place in education !!
It has no place in ANYWHERE. Political Correctness should be put to the rack, drawn and quartered, burned at the stake, and beheaded.
Minorities (Score:1, Insightful)
in teaching or in the broad population? One might as well ask where are the white male school teachers, while we're at it.
Re: (Score:2)
In my high school the majority of the white male teachers were coaches first, and teachers second. No-one cared how well they taught as long as the football/basketball/volleyball/wresting team was winning.
If you counted other minorities... (Score:1)
MSFT has about 60% Indians, so it is very diverse... In all seriousness they bend over backwards to find candidates and I have seen hiring managers pressured heavily to pick the diversity hire even if not a good fit. HR pushing to hire 'minorities' and Indian middle management pushing to increase the Indian mafia. Fun times...
own race/gender/etc. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Montessori schools do that. They let the students decide what they want to learn and at what pace. Personally, I don't buy this educational philosophy. I think kids can often be very short-sighted and might not try to learn an essential subject or might shy away from a subject as "boring/hard" when they would really love it if forced to study it for a bit. K-12 should be about 1) getting a child's educational foundation in place and 2) giving the child exposure to a wide variety of topics so they can de
Discrimination (Score:3, Insightful)
Skin colour should never matter when hiring people. Never.
Re: (Score:2)
With its 2.2% African American/Black and 3.9% Latino/Hispanic tech workforce, who better to increase diversity than Microsoft, right?
A cheap shot from the submitter, but in reality they may actually be the best to lead this charge. They have been dealing with the challenge of trying to figure out how to increase qualified applicant diversity. There is not easy solution but they understand the challenge better than most, so yes, they just might be the one's to lead this.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So, you're giving Microsoft an A for effort, and that's good enough for you. They're the go to guys since they've been trying really hard, right? No, it wasn't a cheap shot, it was spot on.
Re: (Score:2)
There are really obvious exceptions that rule. Need an actor to play a historical figure who was black?
Of course, that isn't what we are talking about here. The best candidate still gets the job, the idea is just to encourage more black people to apply in the first place. Since being a teacher tends to require certain teaching qualifications, the first step is to get more qualified people.
Re: (Score:2)
There are really obvious exceptions that rule. Need an actor to play a historical figure who was black?
Looks like someone has never seen Tropical Thunder.
Re: (Score:2)
Right, and that's exactly the point. White people are more likely to hire other white people, it's an inherent bias. Even if they are not the most qualified for the job, even when studies show that a minority candidate would be a better choice (as with this study). A certain amount of programs encouraging the hiring of minorities is a necessary step towards counter-acting this bias.
Re: (Score:2)
Apartheid Education (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously sounds like they are drifting towards an apartheid education system. That students tend to do better in the US with teachers of the same race (what ever the fuck that is meant to really mean, like human teachers or dog teachers or bird teachers or dolphin teachers), is a solid indication or problems of racism in the society at large and how it is brought into the education system. Race - biological http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rac... [wikiwand.com] was only extended into arbitrary human http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rac... [wikiwand.com] classification purely as a result of rampant prejudice and a specific desire to exclude people from competitive access in capitalist societies. Those statistics are not a measure of better teaching that are a measure of a fractured and failing society, as people within that society seek to avoid failure and drowning in poverty by pushing others down via what ever distinctions they can craft based upon, appearance, language, religion and culture. Those results should be a real wakeup moment of a serious problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously sounds like they are drifting towards an apartheid education system.
Aside from the negative connotations, there's nothing specifically wrong with that. We do have optionally segregated-by-gender schools and they seem to work out pretty well. As long as the segregation isn't mandated by the state, what's the problem?
Race - biological [...] was only extended into arbitrary human [...] classification purely as a result of rampant prejudice and a specific desire to exclude people from competitive access in capitalist societies
Yeah right, race consciousness never existed in non-capitalist economies. I recall reading about an isolated tribe whose name for themselves basically meant "human" and whose name for other people who didn't look like them (like white anthropologists) meant "non-
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah right, race consciousness never existed in non-capitalist economies. I recall reading about an isolated tribe whose name for themselves basically meant "human" and whose name for other people who didn't look like them (like white anthropologists) meant "non-human."
This is quite a common pattern. But in these societies, the number of "humans" is limited by Dunbar's number [wikipedia.org]. Renaissance racism expands the pool of identified "humans" into the millions, and post-Renaissance racism pushes into the thousands of millions and billions, and it draws the boundary in an arbitrary way. Some Indo-Europeans are dismissed as "not white", and some non-Indo-Europeans are allowed into the privileged club because of a lighter pigmentation than others. Modern racism isn't the same as nat
Re: (Score:2)
It's not racism, it's just the way children are. Think about it, when you were a geeky kid did you identify more with geeky adults, characters in science fiction and the like, or with football players and "jocks"? It's not race, it's culture and mindset. As a kid you probably spent more time thinking about Star Trek and less about football tactics, so you identified more with other people who had a similar mindset.
Well, okay, at a very young age things like gender and race do matter to some extent. As we g
Re: (Score:2)
Bring back segregated schools . . . ?!?! (Score:5, Insightful)
So segregated schools would be the obvious (and wrong) answer? Black students go to a school with black teachers, and white kids go to a school with white teachers ?!?!?!
Ah, what ever happened to folks who thought like this:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I guess Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't dreaming . . . give the current state of race relations in the US . . . he was fantasizing.
Re: (Score:2)
They ... claimed copyright?
Re: (Score:2)
How did you get from "it would help to have a more diverse teaching staff" to "separate blacks and whites"? The logic doesn't follow at all. If anything it's the opposite, since all the possible explanations as to why the proportion of black teachers is not the same as the proportion of the general population that is black are social ones.
Race but not Gender? (Score:5, Interesting)
So they are worried about race and not Gender. While boys are failing school more now than ever. They too can benefit from a system that caters to them as well. Where have all the male teachers gone. They have gone else where out of fear of being on a sex registry. And this with a female teacher being the face of high school and middle school sex scandal for years now.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
We will see males get kicked, err escorted, out of corporations. Men will end up fighting wars, firefighting, law enforcement, and construction. Women will take their rightful place as the bosses and the men will simply be used for procreation and cannon fodder.
For those that believe that the world is stacked against women, open your eyes and take a good long look at all the HR policies, societal rules, and corporate programs. The pendulum has swung over the past 50 years from favoring men to favoring wo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
White boys are failing because the curriculum is teaching everyone else self esteem while white boys are taught that they are nothing but evil oppressors. Everyone else has a "pride" month, while whites get a "shame" century. White people, especially boys, are taught that they must go through life in constant state of collective guilt about the crimes of their ancestors, but must NEVER exhibit collective pride in the achievements of their ancestors(that's racism!). It's a deliberate effort to dumb them d
Re: (Score:2)
a feast to mark the massacre of a bunch of native Americans
Er, citation needed.
Re: (Score:2)
a feast to mark the massacre of a bunch of native Americans
Er, citation needed.
Er, OK [huffingtonpost.com].
Re: (Score:2)
It is possible to care about and address more than one issue at a time. The solution for one issue may not solve other issues, so sometimes they can't all be fixed collectively with a single action.
Come on Slashdot, this is a pretty basic logical fallacy. It's not "interesting", "insightful" or "underrated", it's just absurd.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
With no male teachers to do more hand on labs and the like, imagine my surprise that the curriculum has been changed.
Not to mention in male prisons, they justify having women around as a normalizing effect. Yet in women's prisons, males are also taboo for possible sexual impropriety, nevermind the fact female guards are as likely to engage in sexual misconduct (although curiously absent from prosecution).
Firing the BS Flare (Score:1)
Strange... (Score:1)
The logic here doesn't make sense. White is still the largest percentage of students in the US. If students truly benefit most from learning from the same race, then logically you could benefit the highest percentage of students by having only white teachers.
Or maybe we could just, y'know, hire the teachers who are the best at teaching instead of weighting them by race. Crazy, I know.
Re: (Score:2)
then logically you could benefit the highest percentage of students by having only white teachers
That would only be true if students were proportionally represented in every classroom, but they're not.
Re: (Score:2)
Cherry-picked correlations (Score:5, Interesting)
Yet another call for racial discrimination, based on nothing much. I skimmed the paper, and looked particularly at the results sections. The authors cherry-pick the positive correlations, and ignore the negative ones.
It happens that they have a weak positive correlation for black students taught by black teachers, but the correlation for hispanics is universally negative and for asians the correlation is negative everywhere except math. Somehow, the authors forgot to mention the negative correlations in their abstract, and TFA certainly doesn't pick up on them.
Overall, the number of positive and negative correlations is very nearly equal, which leads to the suspicion that the paper represents a careful analysis of random noise.
Re: (Score:2)
Most of the junk science in the news is done this way- just shuffle around control variables until you get the result you want.
Re: (Score:2)
Also called: torture the data until it confesses.
Re: (Score:2)
Overall, the number of positive and negative correlations is very nearly equal, which leads to the suspicion that the paper represents a careful analysis of random noise.
I'm going to send you a bill for cleaning the coffee I spit all over my laptop when I read that.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually that fits in well with the prevailing black/white dichotomy in most race discussions. If Hispanics and Asians do well with teachers of different races, then we can continue to ignore them.
Love this (Score:1)
Male teachers (Score:4, Insightful)
So, using the same line of thinking, they are also promoting hiring more male teachers to properly educate the boys in the classroom ? The elementary school that my kids went to saw their last male teacher leave a few years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Male teachers are getting more and more rare, and discrimination is the reason.
Meanwhile, people are hiring lesser-qualified minorities and H1B workers for half the cost of a better-qualified white american worker, and they get to fly the "DIversity!" flag like they're doing everyone a favor. (not that all minorities are lesser qualified, but the ones willing to work for half the cost likely are)
Re: (Score:2)
Male teachers are getting more and more rare, and discrimination is the reason.
Could it also be pay? I hear teaching (well, below college level) isn't particularly lucrative. And it is still at least partially the case that males tend to be the primary breadwinner. If you are making $40k a year teaching, or you could switch to software engineering or something and make $70k ...
I'm not saying it's not disrimination, either, I'm just wondering if we can really blame it solely on those sorts of societal pressures and not on economics, too.
Re: (Score:2)
No, there are still plenty of men working middle-tier jobs in other fields, teaching isn't a special case when it comes to effort vs reward. Where it is a special case is the way it opens men up to gender-based discrimination (because if a man likes kids he's obviously a pedophile! Only women can like kids without it being sexual!) and that living under the constant threat of a single student's unsubstantiated and untrue claim of misconduct can and will cost you your career, your marriage, your friends, and
Re: (Score:2)
I read AC upthread - linky [slashdot.org] - and tend to broadly agree with that sentiment. IOW, you have absolutely nothing to worry about as the force that is waging the PR-war is not going to let any other demographic be victims. They've cornered that market in such a way that no policy-maker will dare make a policy that enrages them - you will not be getting minority teachers because the PR army involved won't allow it because according to their ideology only they are victims.
Re: (Score:2)
That doesn't follow at all. It's not just a "line of thinking" they actually conducted a study which lends support to the idea that race matching leads to improved outcomes.
Maybe a new study will look at gender? It could be that kids raised by mom are taught more effectively by females or that boys have better results with women and girls with men? Who knows until you look?
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe a new study will look at gender? It could be that kids raised by mom are taught more effectively by females or that boys have better results with women and girls with men? Who knows until you look?
Or maybe little kids who are assholes do better when taught by adults who are likewise assholes.
Is there a program to get more men in the ridiculously sexist school environment like there is one getting women in STEM careers?
Re: (Score:2)
So, using the same line of thinking, they are also promoting hiring more male teachers to properly educate the boys in the classroom ? The elementary school that my kids went to saw their last male teacher leave a few years ago.
And mommies in the school district probably sighed in relief that now the school is pedophile free.
Didn't you know that men must be kept out of our schools? Men are pigs!
Sad to say, I'll bet there were lots of women who applauded the guy leaving.
The skin and the groin. (Score:1)
Everybody KNOWS these are the most important parts of a teacher. Of cause a teacher with the correct genitalia or skin color must be prioritized over the ones with the correct pedagogical skills and knowledge.
Why must this even be pointed out? It should be obvious to everyone!
Education has been in decline since women's lib. (Score:2)
This is a natural result of women's lib. Before that the smartest women (those that are today's scientists, engineers, doctors) would be awesome teachers. Today most teachers are either C students or the hold outs that truly find education as their calling. I'm not saying we need to go back to the old days but we can't keep the same system in place and expect better results.
Re: (Score:3)
When I went to school in the 80's, both my physics and chemistry teachers had a PhD. I remember my physics teacher deriving the formula for centripetal force on the blackboard from basic concepts, without using calculus. I don't think many of today's teachers would even know where to start.
Re: (Score:2)
Same here. Even my typing teacher had a PhD which is why I can touch type so well.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure if this is a general trend across the country, but where I am teachers with actual degrees are being targeted so that they (and the public schools in which they teach) can be replaced with business-run charter schools and "teachers" who took a five week online course. The good teachers are fleeing the profession and I've heard more than one teacher tell people they wouldn't recommend that students choose becoming a teacher as their career.
Re: (Score:2)
What do you mean by actual degree?
Re: (Score:2)
I mean a teaching degree. Where the person studies education, childhood development, and other subjects that make that person capable to educate growing minds. The "5 week course" is analogous to taking someone whose computer experience is launching Word, giving them a 5 week course on server administration and then making them your sysadmin. Yes, the person might be able to go some of the motions of server administration, but they'll never be as good as someone with years of server administration under
Re: (Score:2)
But a teaching degree doesn't teach you to master the material you are teaching. At most it can allow you to manage a class and teach from a book which is exactly the problem we have today. I'm not saying 5 weeks is enough but I would take someone that worked as a biologist their whole life and took a 5 week course over someone with a teaching degree that studied biology for 5 weeks.
Quotas are prejudicial (Score:5, Insightful)
Where are the X percentage of race or gender in Y field? Enough with the quotas. Enough with people looking at statistics and saying "we need this ratio".
Even if you're not saying "do this or you're breaking the law" what they're doing is effectively trying to get quotas in through the back door.
There is a mixture of "oh you must be racist if you don't have X percentage" and then a little of "how about if we give you some money if you do X percentage?" and then maybe a bit of "show us how progressive you are by having X percentage".
Fuck your fucking percentages and ratios. That is not how you fix race and gender issues... by mandating BY ANY FUCKING MEANS some sort of ratio.
This doesn't help "people of color" which apparently only applies to black people because asians sure as hell aren't offered any affirmative action. There was that indian guy that wasn't' getting into medical school, then he got a different haircut and lied on his entrance application saying he was black... bam, got right in.
That's fucked up.
This racist bullshit needs to stop. I know what the idiots will say, "it isn't racist if you're biased against people "power"" ... which just means fuck white people and fuck Asians. It is bullshit and you're not going to make people trust the competence of people if everyone knows that X race or Y gender has to be hired at some ratio for SOME reason other than that they were ACTUALLY considered the best candidate for the job.
Furthermore, there is a lot more to diversity then your fucking skin color or whether or not you have a penis. Not all people with one skin color are the same. You can have ten people of all the same race in the same room and have more diversity in that room of THOUGHT than if you had some rainbow of races in the same room. For all you know those 10 people of the same race could have radically different backgrounds, skill sets, philosophies, etc. To say that they're all the same because they all have the same skin color is incredibly offensive and racist. You might as well just walk around saying "all you people look the same to me so I assume you all are the same"... Are you fucking kidding me. Same thing with dicks and vaginas. You are not your dick or your vagina. If I have a room full of 10 dicks or 10 vaginas they could be more diverse in their thoughts, backgrounds, skill sets, philosophies than if we had some 50 50 split.
What group of idiots out there thought that diversity was getting some mix of races and genders? This is a racist's idea of diversity. A non-racist doesn't see race as being relevant. They view who the person actually IS rather than what their skin color is... but a racist just sees "oh that's X race... and you know what they say about those people". THAT is how racists think. And these quotas arrive at a concept of "diversity" by that same logic. they say, well we have these people with these skin tones so obviously we have diversity. What the the actual fuck?
This is easily one of the most disappointing things about politics in the 21st century. The race, gender, and identity politics are beyond toxic. This shit is going to destroy our society.
We all have to see each other as individuals rather than pairing off into arbitrary meaningless racial groups and assuming that "oh I'm with the X race people which is my race so they've obviously got my back"... I can't speak for anyone else, but there are plenty of people in my own race that are utterly intolerable. Why would I reflexively associate with them when most of them are not people I especially relate... and they can't relate to me. I am as likely to find people I relate to in other races as my own. So where is this diversity through skin tone?
If we were shooting a magazine cover or something... I'd get it. You might want to get some people with one skin tone here and another there and who knows what the photographer is doing. But if you're running a business or an education system... WHO THE FUCK CARES.
The worst
Re: (Score:2)
I agree with the overwhelming majority of what you say. I especially appreciate your stating that 10 people of the same skin color can be orders of magnitude more "diverse" than having the magic rainbow. This prevailing "wisdom" that if you mix the right % of people from different races, genders and ethnic backgrounds you get an ideal outcome is absolute nonsense. AA and quotas are also absolute nonsense. The entire idea that fostering "diversity" and "multiculturalism" will lead to improved outcomes is
Re: (Score:3)
Underlying a lot of the problems and POLITICS in this issue is that people are cooking a lot of the statistics.
Remember that Rolling Stones article where the writer first came to the conclusion that rape on college was out of control and then scoured the country looking for in her words an "emblematic" case to base her position on. That is how creationists do science. They start with the premise that the world is 6000 years old and then look for evidence to support that position. That is what is going on in
Re: (Score:2)
but hiring black teachers for black students and white teachers for white students to achieve improved results apparently has some empirical basis, so why not do it?
Adding to what Karmashock is saying, I'd like to add the following: because it doesn't teach kids anything about diversity, or about being able to work with people that aren't like you.
If the thing you learn in life from school is "surround yourself with people like you because it's a security blanket", you'll eventually find yourself hobbled by the notion that you don't know how to deal with people that aren't like you. It doesn't toughen kids up for the real world, and reinforces the notion that kids sho
Re: (Score:2)
Okay man, breath... Calm down. Now, carefully re-read the summary and TFA.
They mention a percentage as evidence of low participation, but I don't see them mentioning a 50/50 goal anywhere. They don't appear to advocate forcing any particular ratio by any means. Your rant is mostly about stuff that only happened in your head, bro.
Re: (Score:3)
Read my post again... I said any ratio by any means.
If you're attempting to effect your statistical ratio then you are attempting to get a desired ratio by some means.
Logic.
Re: (Score:3)
Why are people dicks for no reason? Whatever... I forgive you.
You call me an aspie and then not only agree with me but say that the people pushing this are simply doing it for political pandering.
Which while different from what I said, is hardly more honorable or respectable.
Silly insults aside, we agree that this is bullshit. Which was my central thesis.
Re: (Score:2)
No, I do not think I am the only person that has realized it.
However, if everyone knew it was bullshit then it wouldn't be a popular idea either. There have to be large numbers of gullible people that buy into the argument or they wouldn't have any reason to make such an argument in the first place.
In regards to you apparently being addicted to simply calling me an "aspie" without any reason for it... Whatever. I'm going to assume you have some kind of tourettes now... where instead of saying you want to fu
Re: (Score:2)
As you will, any sort of personal statement on the internet can be cited as puffery... I feel my qualifications are self evident. But you are of course welcome to form your own... I can't after all stop you from being wrong. :)
Where Are the Teachers of Color? (Score:3)
Where Are the Teachers of Color?
Probably in art schools, teaching things like additive and subtractive synthesis. And judging by the quality of some UIs, especially these made by coders, it is a legitimate question to ask.
Men... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Growing up some of my favorite teachers were guys, but now there seem to be almost no male teachers.
Don't you know? Men are Pigs. All male teachers are pedos and rapists. We cannot allow men around our children!!
Anyone who has the brass balls to complain about women in STEM and the horrible way that they are treated needs to fist com eup with a defense of the US school system in it's pre-assumption of sexcrime guilt by all males.
Majority (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So we have a study that proves that hiring African/Hispanic/Asian teachers will necessarily hurt the education of the majority. So what do we do? We go out and hire as many African/Hispanic/Asian teachers as possible?
Assuming this is an accurate study, the actual answer is to study exactly why this happens. Short of an apartheid like situation where each student is forced to go only to teachers of their own ethnicity, how on earth would this even work?
And then there are students like say Tiger Woods. So many "races" mixed in - where would he fit in this? Is he "White"? Is he Asian? Is he African? Do we need to search out and have teachers of the specific racial mix?
And then, could you imagine the furor if a study c
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We have moved away from viewing race in that way. Tiger Woods is any ethnicity that he chooses to be, at any given time.
Wait. Are you saying I can call myself African American?
Students will do better if they believe that they are being taught by their race, regardless of if the person is generically far more different form them than some other-raced children in the same class (who are doing worse because of their perceived difference).
Well - aside from the overt, unbridled, and in my face racism of your remark, it's completely bankrupt and silly. Do I have the right to insist on a eastern European teacher because otherwise my children won't do as well? How about a person of Moor descendance? The pygmy tribe os Africa - do they have a right to demand Pygmy teachers? This demand tor same race teachers is more racist than appartheid, it makes the old school southern race baiters look
Properly Represented (Score:2)
As a school board member in my community, I know that we would like our teachers to closely represent our district demographics. Our district is a combination of urban, suburban and rural so it's a challenge to maintain these numbers even though we have a university in town churning out new teachers. The fact of the matter is, people of color are not choosing education as a major and if they are, they are being hired right out of college by larger districts.
For the record, I think the premise of the article
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing would please me more. I went to vocational school and have been turned away by several employers because I don't have a degree. My personal opinion is that college is a business that has effectively promoted itself into being necessary for survival. Certainly someone with 20+ years of experience should be allowed to teach within their field, shouldn't they?
Danger Will Robinson! (Score:2)
Should ht African-American Students be shuttled off to be taught by African American teachers?
This being America, can a student of color and their parent's sue for some portion of a grade point average, claiming that they could have been accepted to a better college?
In the end, this sounds like some mutant form of liberal apartheid.
Causes (Score:2)
1) Teachers teach how they learnt and understand the content. So will obviously be better teachers to those who learn in the same way they do. Which could possibly be highly correlated to genetics and race (and therefore more casually correlated to general skin color and to perception of race).
2) We already know that there is an innate pre-programmed distrust, hatred, and fear of differ
Discrimination? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)